Album Review: Peopled With Dreams
June 9, 2020
The first time I heard of John Mark McMillan was in high school, it was the song “Future / Past” off of his album “Borderland.” When I heard it, I immediately was captivated by his rich, emotional voice. After listening to this, I went and listened to the rest of “Borderland.” The songs were authentic and immersive and each line sounding meticulously constructed to send a clear message to the listener. Fast forward to now, John Mark McMillan has produced 4 more albums, which halfway through brought a drastic change in his sound. In 2017, he released his third oldest album “Mercury & Lightning.” The album was originally intended to be a worship album – something familiar to him and other music he writes. However, while writing the album, he came to the realization that worship music seemed ingenuine more often than not. This made him want to write other genres of music, and that’s exactly what we got. Now in present time, his newest album is a continuation of him exploring new music territory and pushing himself to step out of his comfort zone. “Peopled with Dreams” pulls from the sounds of 80s and 90s alternative rock and combined with his poetic and rich voice.
The album begins with “Christ Jesus.” The song immediately makes your ears perk up because of the single repetitive note played on the piano for the first 15 seconds. After an intro of just John and piano, the listener is introduced to the heavenly sound of a gospel choir singing along with him in the chorus. We then move into one of my personal favorites, “Juggernaut,” which goes back to what his avid listeners know as his most familiar sound. The song talks about this ominous juggernaut that lurks around. John talks about how originally he was thinking of the juggernaut as death, but he realized that life is actually the unstoppable force coming at us, and life is what wins in the end, not death. The most musically open song is “Pilgrim.” The piano-based song carries a beautiful melody throughout as he talks about how he is just a pilgrim searching for the heavenly city, and he too often finds himself on the wrong side of where he wants to be.
The next big album shift is the song “Hammering Heart.” Do you remember in the end of Inception as they only have a few seconds to finish their mission and escape the dreams? That’s exactly what the last minute of this song does – a grandiose instrumental outro. It makes you feel like you’re living in a movie with Hans Zimmer writing the score for you. With the epic music, John delivers some heavy “hitting” lyrics (sorry I had to). In the verses, he poetically and elegantly talks about the earth and all of the beauty found on it. Then, each chorus is the sovereign reminder that the love of God can also come through judgement. After taking in the lyrics, you are left with the incredible outro that stays unresolved as the song ends. The song is then followed by “The Roads, The Rocks, and The Weeds.” It’s an authentic look at the path of John finding his way back to honest faith. He is crying for authenticity within himself and he eventually finds his way back to this foundation – being real with himself and with God.
The last two songs of the album are “Unbroken Horses” and “Ancient and Brave.” I love both of these songs too. John said that for “Unbroken Horses” he overcompensated on the pop rock instrumental to cover the fact he was singing about adulting, but the song is magnificent. Just like an unbroken horse, an unbroken spirit looks beautiful, but it is weak without having gone through any trials. True love doesn’t allow for this kind of avoidance of true growth. To have true love, you have to be able to sacrifice, which is why one line of the chorus is, “Love has come to slay us, love has come to lay us down.” What a beautiful picture this line paints! To find true love, we have to find the ability to sacrifice, and this is why Jesus sacrificed himself for all humanity.
I have heard mixed reviews from some on the album because of the new and unusual John Mark McMillan sounds you get with it. Personally, I have enjoyed listening to it these last couple months as it shows how he stretches himself musically throughout his career. After his crisis with “Mercury & Lightning”, John explored how to express Christianity and faith through other genres of music other than contemporary worship music. He uses his past experiences to piece together these authentic messages in every song that people are give people the ability to relate directly to him. I know it will probably be a good bit before we see another album or song from John Mark McMillan, but I already can’t wait for it! If you want the full experience of this album, I recommend going to his Facebook and using the synopses posted for each song before listening to them!
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Written by: Andrew Reynolds
Andrew is a Senior Project Management Major, and enjoys writing for the blog because of the opportunity it gives him to grow as a writer and to challenge himself to see current topics and discussions from a view point he may not have otherwise thought about.